The city of Springfield will cut its nonprofit service contracts by 94 percent next fiscal year.
Funding to all but five partner agencies will be reduced to zero, according to the city's 2010 budget, in which officials are extracting as many expenses as possible.
Still clutching to the city's coffers are the Landmarks Board, the Mayor's Commission on Children, Ozark Greenways and the Mayor's Commission on Human Rights.
"Those that received funding were the ones that we felt we had to do the minimal amount to keep alive," Deputy City Manager Evelyn Honea said of the five months of budget workshops during which city staff reviewed each nonprofit partner agency.
Springfield City Council approved the fiscal 2010 budget at its June 15 meeting.
The $257.4 million budget factors in an expected $3.2 million drop in the city's 1 percent general sales tax revenue and an increase of nearly $500,000 in contributions to the Police and Fire Pension Fund, which is underfunded by $190 million.
The result: What had been nearly $600,000 in payments for nonprofit service contracts this year drops to less than $40,000 next year.
Trouble in the neighborhood
Urban Neighborhoods Alliance is scratched from the city's list entirely.
The organization, devoted to developing "vibrancy, security, health and ... a true sense of community" in five downtown Springfield neighborhoods, will lose nearly $42,000 in city funding beginning in July.
UNA Executive Director Bob Horton said the cuts represent nearly two-thirds of the group's annual funding. Combined with declining corporate and individual donations, which make up the bulk of the organization's remaining funding, UNA is in a tough spot.
The situation is so severe that two neighborhoods that receive UNA services - Midtown and Woodland Heights - made donations of $2,500 each to help sustain the group.
UNA will receive a small reprieve from a federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant, created by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help neighborhoods affected by foreclosures and abandoned homes. Up to $1.5 million is available for acquisition and renovation of foreclosed homes, though that money can't be used for other services UNA has traditionally provided such as overall community enhancement.
He also said UNA is preparing to launch a fundraising effort, dubbed Campaign for the Community, through which the group hopes to find 500 donors at $100 each.
Staying put
Like many of the nonprofits dealing with disappearing city funding, the History Museum for Springfield-Greene County is getting squeezed from all sides. The museum is losing more than $35,000 in city funding - roughly 40 percent of its annual budget.
Executive Director John Sellars said the museum is cutting one of its three full-time employees, curtailing operating hours and reducing the number of rotating exhibits. The museum also will begin charging a fee for its outreach services, where it makes presentations at schools and civic organizations.
"It will be a significant change in what we felt like was a very positive thing in the everyday life of Springfield," Sellars said.
More visibly, the History Museum's plans to move out of its third-floor City Hall space and into its own building on Park Central Square are on hold indefinitely.
"We were well on our way; we had our architect's plans done and were ready to move forward with a significant fundraiser for that, but we have to make sure we're a viable entity before we proceed," Sellars said.
The museum also faces the same pressure on the donor side of the budget; about half the entity's income comes from individual donations. The biggest problem is that the same people who donate to the museum also support other nonprofits that have been hit by the city budget crunch, such as the Discovery Center and Ozark Greenways.
"The people that you would hope would step up and raise their membership level are going the other way now. That's perfectly understandable - they have their families to take care of, and everyone is very nervous about what tomorrow brings," he said. "But all of us are going to the same people asking for more, and it's just not there."
The political pot
Emily Fox, CEO of the Discovery Center, is the first to admit that the situation is not as dire for her organization.
The $32,000 the center will not be receiving from the city next year makes up about 5 percent of the total budget; the center banks more on admission sales, memberships, contributions and grants.
But Fox said the departure of city funding will be felt: Staff benefits are being reduced, free admission days will likely be eliminated, and after-school programs for at-risk youth will be cut unless new grant sources are found.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg, Fox said.
"In the next two years, contributions are going to be split even more because of the political campaigns. It's the same pot of donations that (politicians are) drawing from," she said. "In a climate like that, it's very difficult to raise that money."
Looking ahead
While this year's city funding cuts are painful, Deputy City Manager Honea warned that the worst may not be over yet.
She said that if the pension fund task force is able to come up with a long-term solution, and if city sales tax revenues don't continue their precipitous decline, "there's a possibility we could find a way to put some of this funding back (in fiscal 2011), though I'm not sure it will go back to where it was two years ago."
She added, however, that the pension fund actuaries are performing their actuarial study, which could mean a contribution to the fund higher than the $13 million earmarked for fiscal 2010.
"If sales tax continues to travel down on us like it has been, and we don't have a solution for the pension contribution ... we will be looking at even greater cuts than what we had this year," she said.
The threat of additional cuts likely makes little difference to UNA chief Horton, as his funding from the city has been fully eliminated. He's more worried about being able to provide what he feels are essential community services.
"The work we do is important not only to the neighborhoods we serve but the overall quality of life for the city of Springfield," Horton said. "And with the rough economy, demand for our services is greater now than ever. What a time to be losing funding, when demand for your services is higher than it's ever been."
